Labor's land clearing laws debated in Parliament

But the government insists its legislation, which is expected to be passed this week, strikes the necessary balance between supporting farmers and protecting the environment.

The overhaul will stop broadscale clearing of remnant vegetation for high-value agriculture and expand the definition of high-value regrowth.

Currently, the definition includes vegetation that has not been cleared since the beginning of 1990, but it will be expanded to include vegetation that is at least 15 years old, securing an extra 450,000 hectares of protected vegetation.

Compliance officers will be given more powers, there will be extended protection for regrowth vegetation along all waterways that lead to the Great Barrier Reef, and landholders will need to seek approval before thinning native vegetation.

Resource Minister Anthony Lynham said the current rate of land clearing in Queensland was not sustainable.

"If this clearing continues it will increase the rate of extinction of our native wildlife," he said.

"It will put jobs and businesses reliant on the land and the Great Barrier Reef at risk.

"It will drive up Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, preventing Australia from meeting its international climate commitments and hinder the great work under way in regional communities to respond to climate change risk and impacts."

Queensland has become a national hotspot for land clearing, accounting for 50 to 65 per cent of the total loss of native forests in Australia over the past four decades, a recent Climate Council report said.

Farmers rallied outside the Parliament on Tuesday morning wearing green shirts, with some flagging a possible class action.

LNP Natural Resources spokesman Dale Last said the government was "demonising" farmers and introducing the most draconian vegetation management laws Queensland had ever seen.

"This bill is not built on facts," he said.

"It is built upon a rotting foundation of extreme green ideology, shonky science and an ugly manifestation of the city-country divide."

Mr Last said the LNP was not advocating widespread land clearing, and regional communities would be hurt by the legislation.

"Farmers take great pride in the way they manage their land and we should trust them to do the right thing, instead of demonising them and running interference at every available opportunity," he said.

But Dr Lynham said the laws would not stop farmers from looking after their farms.

"Landholders are still able to manage vegetation essential to their day-to-day business," he said.

"The bill does not ban all clearing; rather it seeks to ensure the sustainable management of native vegetation."

It will be the second time Labor has attempted to get its land clearing changes through the Parliament, to reverse a relaxation of the laws introduced by the LNP Newman government in 2013.

Labor's previous bill was defeated by two votes in 2016, after failing to win enough support from the crossbench.

The LNP planned to oppose the bill, but Labor was still expected to succeed, as it had a majority in the Parliament.